Rebels kill 11 railway workers in India's northeast

GUWAHATI, India, May 11 (Reuters) - Tribal insurgents killed 11 railway workers in India's remote northeast on Sunday, police said, a day after security forces gunned down 11 rebels.

Police said militants attacked a remote railway station in the state of Assam, killing three workers. They later raided a railway construction site and killed eight workers.

"All eleven were killed on the spot," said a senior police officer, who did not want to be named.

He said the suspects were members of a breakaway group of the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), fighting for regional autonomy.

The DHD is observing a ceasefire and holding talks with the government, but the breakaway DHD (Jewel) faction frequently targets non-tribals working in saw mills, railway stations and farmlands.

On Saturday, Indian security forces killed 11 of their members in the same area, police said.

The DHD (Jewel) had warned of attacks if India went ahead with the construction of roads and railway tracks connecting the mountainous region with the rest of the country.

India's northeast, comprising eight states, has seen separatist and tribal insurgencies for the past 60 years as militant groups accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral and forest resources but investing little in return.

The region is home to more than 200 tribes and ethnic groups. (Reporting by Biswajyoti Das; Editing by Bappa Majumdar)